As digital experts and a keystone agency in the Arts & Culture space, Grandad has decades of experience in delivering beautifully crafted digital solutions that deliver business objectives.
Working in Arts and ticketing affords us the real-life knowledge of working with various budgets - some high, some low, yet still delivering quality, digital solutions that meet the needs of the organisation, and more specifically the needs of their audience.
Websites and digital solutions are certainly a core area where Arts organisations can harness the power of their communities and get their funds to stretch further . Accessibility, community, and automation are cornerstones of the digital world, and it is in these areas, when successfully nurtured, that Arts organisations can capitalise to help future-proof and elevate their offering.
Accessibility
Bringing inspirational, diverse and educational experiences to your visiting audience is what your organisation is about. Engaging, attracting and welcoming them time and again whether online or face to face is critical to your organisation’s existence. In the 21st century, ‘try before you buy’ is common practice with 76% of people looking at an organisation or venue’s online experience before physically visiting. Today audiences have higher expectations from their digital experiences and ensuring that the needs and abilities of your audience are being met is crucial, especially if you want to demonstrate your commitment to inclusivity, and (if you have the functionality) when persuading visitors to book their visit online.
Grandad’s YouAccess is a simple, innovative and affordable digital tool that integrates into most websites, supporting users with a range of audio and visual choices that allow them to personalise the way they experience your website. With YouAccess your visitors can choose the way text and colours are displayed, choose fonts more suited to their needs, switch off audio and animations, use page, image and text magnifiers, read the website aloud and customise many more features. A YouAccess integrated site will put your user’s needs and abilities at the heart of your operations, ensuring that they enjoy the best experience time and again, even before they’ve set one foot into your venue.
See how we made Brighton Festival more accessible in the case study below...
Community
Inspiring communities is a fundamental part of what the Arts is about and here at Grandad the majority of our clients need a website or digital solution to help them foster their community. In our client discovery workshops one of the most important questions we ask is who is your community and what do they want from their relationship with you. Asking this gives us a great insight into how we craft a digital solution fit for their needs, and in your case, it gives you a great insight into how you can successfully craft their visit. It is likely that your community has multiple strands and you will need to tailor their website journey according to various attributes (eg. interests, age group, location).
Conducting audience research, A/B testing and analysis will help to ensure your offering matches the need. This insight will then enable you to customise their web journey with relevant communications and content, guiding them through a seamless online experience to an end goal of booking their visit.
See how we crafted a community experience for Warwick Arts Centre in the case study below...
Our expertise in the Membership space gives us an understanding about catering for multiple community audiences. Tiered membership and subscription options that allow for dynamic discounting at the online checkout are tactics for engaging and retaining visitors, whether that’s discounted tickets for visitors from your immediate local community, to free passes or events for low income families or minors. Whatever your strategy or end goal, Grandad has helped Arts organisations to analyse and research their audience to ensure the value proposition is fit for purpose, and it ultimately meets the needs of every community member.
See how we tailored the value proposition for The Production Guild in the case study below...
Automation
Business automation is key to making your funds go further, by improving the efficiency of your organisation whilst saving resources. Much of the work we deliver across Arts, ticketing and Membership includes process automation in one form or another, whether that’s integrating a venue booking or ticketing gateway platform, installing programme calendar views, or building online donor or subscription web portals. These digital solutions speed up processes and ultimately enhance the user experience, ensuring that you have the bookings, data or income in advance, and the customer has the experience they hoped for.
In conclusion...
Maximising your funds over the next four years relies on putting your user’s at the centre of your strategy. As these approaches demonstrate, when you are able to focus on your user’s experience, you are nurturing your community and boosting their loyalty. Giving them a good digital experience will not only showcase what you can do face to face it will revolutionise your internal processes, empower your team and secure your organisation against future challenges.
Get in touch!
Discover how Grandad can help to make your funds go further by getting in touch at the link below, or by meeting us at the forthcoming Arts Marketing Association Digital Day on 30th November.